Bottle-gauging means

ABSTRACT

Gauging means for the bore of a neck of a bottle or the like, comprising take-out head holding tongs, normally associated with a bottle-making machine for lifting formed bottles from a mould and gauging means situated within the tong head, and capable of movement relative to the tongs.

United States Patent 1191 v 1111 3,771,650

Henderson et al. Nov. 13, 1973 [54] BOTTLE-GAUGING MEANS 3,407,931 10/1968 Vincent 209/82 x 2,759,600 8/1956 Saylor 209/82 ux [751 Wenmm Benders; Geomey Acme" 2,606,657 8/1952 Berthelsen.... 209/82 x both of Rotherham, England 3,390,569 7/1968 McMeekin.... 209 82 ux [73 l Assign/cc: Beatson, Clark & Company,

Limited Primary Examiner-Allen N. Knowles Att0rneyLowe & King [22] Med: May 22, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 255,577 [5 ABSTRACT Gauging means for the bore of a neck of a bottle or [52] U S Cl 209/80 '33/178 B the like, comprising take-out head holding tongs, nor- [51 1 Im- CL 807C mally associated with a bottle-making machine for lift- [58] new 0665,11; "757375 869780 99 formed homes from a mould and gauging means situated within the tong head, and capable of movement relat1ve to the tongs.

[56] References Cited 7 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,713,419 7/1955 Hayes 209/82 UX FROM OTHER SOURCES REJECTION MECHANISM PATENTEDNnv 13 m 3.771.650 8HEEI1UF4 FROM OTHER SOURCES REJECTION MECHANISM PATENTEU NOV 1 3 I875 SHEET 2 [IF 4 .1 BOTTLE-GAUGING MEANS This invention relates to the gauging of bottles and is particularly concerned with providing means capable of gauging the bore in the neck of a bottle capable of operation at speeds commensurate with the speed at which bottles are produced.

It is highly undesirable for a bottle that has a neck bore of insufficient diameter to -be allowed to be sent to a customer who will subsequently perform bottlefilling operations. The presence of a bottle in a line in a bottle-filling machine that either cannot be filled at all or does not allow the full quantity of liquid to pass to the inside of the bottle is highly undesirable because of its disrupting effect of the bottle-filling operation, and is particularly undesirable when the bottles are being filled with liquids having inflammable or obnoxious characteristics.

Hitherto, there have been provided gauging devices associated with the conveyor leading from a bottleforming machine which introduces certain disadvantages in as much that either the bottles must be stopped on the conveyor to allow gauging to take place or the gauge must be sufficiently complex to allow it to move at the same speed as the bottles during the time that gauging takes place. In both instances, the gauging devices have limited maximum speeds of operation and if associated with a bottle-making machine operating at high speeds, this can lead to the situation that either the gauging mechanism fails completely or an insufficient number of bottles are gauged to be of no practical value.

The object of the present invention is to provide gauging means for the bore of a neck of a bottle capable of operation at speeds equal to the speed of production of a bottle no matter how rapid that may be.

According to the present invention, gauging means for the bore of a neck of a bottle orthe like comprises take-out head holding tongs, normally associated with a bottle-making machine for lifting formed bottles from a mould and gauging means situated within the tong head, and capable of movement relative to the tongs.

Thus, during normal operation of a conventional bottle-forming machine in which the gob is first presented to a blank-forming mould and the blank subsequently deposited into a finishing mould from where it is lifted by the take-out tong head, the assembly comprising the take-out tong head and the gauge are brought in conventional manner to a position above the top of a finished bottle and then operated to allow the tongs to grip the bottle, to lift it and to subsequently place it on a conveyor. As the tongs are closed, the gauging device is passed within the bore of the neck of a bottle. If the neck has been properly formed, the gauge will pass cleanly within the bottle-neck and the gripping tongs will subsequently grip the bottle and remove it from the mould. If, however, the bore of the neck has not been formed correctly the gauging means will not be allowed to pass within the neck, but will be caused to move upwards with respect to the tongs as the tongs are closed, to activate means associated with the gauge to effect rejection of the bottle after it has been placed on the conveyor.

Preferably, the gauge includes a plunger of a diameter fractionally less than the minimum diameter of a correctly-formed bore of a bottle-neck, the plunger passing within the neck as the tongs are closed. If the neck is constricted or completely closed, the plunger is mounted such that it can move relative to the tongs. Thus, the plunger may be secured to a piston lying within a cylinder situated between the tongs, the piston supporting a spring which, in turn, supports a valve, the purpose of the Spring being to push the valve upwards onto its seat and then allow relative movement between the valve and the piston in the event of a faulty bottle being present and also to assist in maintaining the piston and plunger in the outermost position. It is further preferable that the means associated with the gauge to effect rejection of a deformed bottle is pneumatic means, when upward movement of the plunger and the piston can close a valve in an airline, thus causing a pulse of pressure to be fed to sensing means which, on detection of that pulse of pressure, activates suitable rejection means, e.g.', a solenoid-operated plunger or an air-operated cylinder controlled by a solenoid valve alongside the take-off conveyor to knock the rejected bottle from the conveyor. Obviously, as an alternative, any suitable electrical,electro-mechanical or electromagnetic means can be associated with the springloaded plunger to sense its movement with respect to the tongs and activate the rejection means.

Thus, no matter how quickly the bottle-forming machine is operating, the. bottle-neck is automatically gauged each time the take-out tong head is utilised to remove a bottle from the finishing mould. Normally, a bottle-forming machine operates as a bank of moulds in pairs and each take-out tong is provided with the gauging device, thereby providing effective gauging for every bottle that is produced.

Moulds are also used singly and in triplicate and the invention could be applied to these arrangements as well. g

Two embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings,

' in which:

FIG. 1 is a partsectional side elevation of one embodiment of take-out holding tongs and neck gauge ac cording to the invention, the tongs to the left of the Figure being in the open position and the tongs to the right tended beyond the bottom 3 of the cylinder, and is secured by bolts 4 to flanges 5 extending upwardly from a plate 6. The extended part of the cylinder is provided with diametrically opposed slots 7 to allow a connecting rod 8 secured to a piston rod 9 to extend laterally to the operating mechanism for the tongs 10. Two inverted U-shaped members are bolted to the lower side of the plate 6 so that pairs of limbs 11 of the U-shapcd members extend downwardly from the plate 6, each pair of tongs 10 being pivotally secured between each pair of limbs 11 on pivots 12.

Between the tongs of each pair lies an operating rod 13 having a frusto-conical cam section 14, the ends of the tongs above the pivot 12 being provided with rollers 15 in engagement with the cam surface, the rollers being kept in contact with the cam surface by two springs 16 connecting the upper tong sections. Above the frusto-conical cam section, the operating rod extends upwards and ends in connection means 17 to a source of gaugingfluid, e.g., air. At its upper end, the rod is provided with an annular groove 18 to receive a washer 19, there being a return spring 20 extending from the washer to the annular flange 21 on a bush 22 secured to the upper surface of the plate 6.

The upper part of the operating rod is provided with a central bore 23, the lower part having an enlarged bore 24 forming a cylinder continuing from the bore 23. Extending from the cylinder 24 is a plunger 25 the lower end of which is enlarged to suit the size of bottle neck to be gauged, and the upper end of which is enlarged to form a piston that is a sliding fit in the cylinder 24. An end cap 26 holds the plunger within the bore. At the upper end of the cylinder 24 is a valve head 27 having a guide peg 28 extending into the bore 23, a compression spring 29 supporting the valve head above the plunger end and clear of the bottom of the bore when the spring is fully extended.

Thus, in operation to remove formed bottles from a mould, the piston 2 is operated, e.g., by air, to cause the connecting rod 8 and thus the operating rod 13 to lower. As the rod 13 is lowered, the cam section 14 urges the rollers outwardly and thus the operative ends of the tongs inwardly to grip a bottle 30. At the same time, the plunger 25 is lowered into the bottle neck, and so long as the neck is correctly formed there will be no relative movement between the plunger and the tongs. If, however, the neck is partially or totally blocked, the plunger is pushed into the cylinder 24 and causes the spring 29 to urge the valve head against the bottom of the bore 23. This causes a pulse of back pressure in the gauging air line which pulse is sensed by means associated with rejection mechanism 100 which causes the bottle to be rejected at an appropriate point on an outfeed conveyor from the machine. Whilst any suitable form of rejection mechanism can be used, it is preferred that the rejection mechanism is of a form capable of receiving signals 102 from other sources so that the one rejection mechanism can be used to reject bottles that are shown to contain unacceptable faults of any kind.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, there is the same operation in principle as is the case in FIGS. 1 and 2. However, instead of there being a common operation cylinder and piston for each pair of tongs, each pair is individually operated by its own cylinder 30 and piston 31 supplied by a common source of pressure fluid, e.g., air from an inlet connection 33 secured to a post 34 mounted on a plate 35, and there secured by bolts 36 passing through upstanding flanges 37, the cylinders 30 also being mounted on the plate 35. Within the cylinder is a return spring 38 surrounding the piston rod 39, there being an upward extension 40 of the piston rod leading to a connection 41 to a source of gauging air, above the cylinder. The piston rod and the upward extension are axially bored at 42, which bore emerges in an enlarged bore 43 forming a cylinder housing a valve head 44, an enlarged end 45 forming a piston of a plunger 46 and a compression spring 47, and end cap 48 holding the piston 45 within the cylinder 43.

Each piston rod 39 below the plate 35 (the piston rod extending through an aperture in that plate) is provided with a cross-member 49, each end of which is pivotally secured to a link 50, which in turn is pivotally secured to one arm 51 of a bell crank lever pivotally secured at 52 between a pair of downwardly extending flanges 53 from the plate 35. The tongs proper 54 are secured to the other arm 55 of the bell-crank lever.

Thus, when the head is ready to grip a bottle (as is depicted at the left-hand side of FIG. 3) the return spring 38 has raised the piston 31 and thus the piston rod 39 and plunger 41, and the linkage system has opened the tongs. When pressure fluid is admitted to the cylinders 30, the piston is lowered, causing the linkages to close the tongs on to a bottle (as is shown at the right-hand side of FIG. 3). If the bottle-neck has been correctly formed, the plunger 46 passes within it and the valve head 44 remains clear of the bottom of the bore 42. If, however, the neck is partially or totally blocked, there will be a rearward movement of the plunger as the piston rod is lowered causing the spring 47 to press the valve head 44 against the bottom of the bore 42 thereby creating back pressure or a pulse of pressure in the gauging air system. As was the case with FIGS. 1 and 2, it is the sensing of the increased pressure in the gauging air that activates rejection mechanism to be operated at an appropriate point on the outfeed conveyor. Again, the rejection mechanism should be of a type capable of receiving signals from other parts of the bottle-making machine so that rejection from all causes can take place at one point on the conveyor.

We claim:

1. Gauging means for gauging the bore of a neck of a bottle at a bottle-making mold comprising take-out head holding tongs for lifting formed bottles from the mold and gauging means situated within said head, for signalling a defective bottle bore at a rejection location remote from said mold.

2. Gauging means as in claim 1, in combination with rejection means at the remote location for rejecting defective bottles at a time substantially delayed from said signal.

3. Gauging means as in claim 2, wherein said rejection means is connected to other rejection signals from other parts of a bottle-making machine in addition to those from the gauge, whereby bottles can be rejected from any cause at the remote location.

4. Gauging means as in claim 1 including a plunger situated within said head, capable of movement relative to said tongs, and of diameter fractionally less than the minimum diameter of a correctly-formed bore of a bottle neck, said plunger passing within the neck of a correctly formed-bore without movement relative to said tongs when said tongs are closed for lifting bottles.

5. Gauging means as in claim 4 including valve means reponsive to relative movement of the plunger and the tongs when the bottle neck has a defectively-formed bore.

6. Gauging means as in claim 5 including a gauging fluid line coupled to said valve means.

7. Gauging means as in claim 6, wherein said valve means comprises a cylinder situated between said tongs, a piston lying within said cylinder and coupled to said plunger, a spring supported by said piston and a valve supported by said spring. 

1. Gauging means for gauging the bore of a neck of a bottle at a bottle-making mold comprising take-out head holding tongs for lifting formed bottles from the mold and gauging means situated within said head, for signalling a defective bottle bore at a rejection location remote from said mold.
 2. Gauging means as in claim 1, in combination with rejection means at the remote location for rejecting defective bottles at a time substantially delayed from said signal.
 3. Gauging means as in claim 2, wherein said rejection means is connected to other rejection signals from other parts of a bottle-making machine in addition to those from the gauge, whereby bottles can be rejected from any cause at the remote location.
 4. Gauging means as in claim 1 including a plunger situated within said head, capable of movement relative to said tongs, and of diameter fractionally less than the minimum diameter of a correctly-formed bore of a bottle neck, said plunger passing within the neck of a correctly formed-bore without movement relative to said tongs when said tongs are closed for lifting bottles.
 5. Gauging means as in claim 4 including valve means reponsive to relative movement of the plunger and the tongs when the bottle neck has a defectively-formed bore.
 6. Gauging means as in claim 5 including a gauging fluid line coupled to said valve means.
 7. Gauging means as in claim 6, wherein said valve means comprises a cylinder situated between said tongs, a piston lying within said cylinder and coupled to said plunger, a spring supported by said piston and a valve supported by said spring. 